Successful child actors don’t always turn out to be such successful adult actors, which is why it was so nice to see Kirsten Dunst go from her breakout roles as a precocious vampire and the littlest March sister to grow up and become a fabulous Queen of France, among other things. She’s worked steadily as a youth and adult in all kinds of roles, but we, of course, celebrate her historical costume movie and TV features here.
Claudia in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)
Most people would say she’s the best thing about this movie (I’d quibble because I ‘ship Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas, but Dunst does an amazing job as the preternaturally aged little girl).
Younger Amy March in Little Women (1994)
Such a scene-stealer!
Hannah Stern in The Devil’s Arithmetic (1999)
Kirsten Dunst plays a Jewish girl who time-travels back to the Holocaust to get in touch with her roots in a kind of after-school-special TV movie.
Marion Davies in The Cat’s Meow (2001)
Coming into her own in a classy historical role.
Zinaida in Lover’s Prayer (2001)
But then there’s this cheesy love triangle set in 19th-c. Russia.
Marie Antoinette in Marie Antoinette (2006)
The ultimate! The best! We love her in this film SO VERY MUCH!
Colette in The Two Faces of January (2014)
A thriller set in 1962, Kirsten Dunst is part of a posh couple vacationing in Athens.
Vivian Mitchell in Hidden Figures (2016)
Playing the racist white lady who tries to keep Octavia Spencer’s character down, though she comes around in the end.
Edwina in The Beguiled (2017)
Nice hair, at least.
Agatha Christie in Drunk History (2018)
We love the cameos in this series!
What’s your favorite historical costume movie or TV role of Kirsten Dunst’s?
Seen most of them.
My only beef with her version of Little Women (which is my absolute favorite) is that after such a charismatic little Amy, they cast a bland, non-charismatic older Amy. It’s hard to wrap my mind around how Amy went from scene stealing to background noise — Dunst had such presence, I missed her when she grew up into someone else. :P
Agreed about Little Women!
She’s probably my favorite actress to portray Marion Davies.
Her turn in “Interview” really impressed me. How a child could portray the sexual knowingness of an adult woman was fascinating, and none of her later work disappointed. It wasn’t a period piece, bur her role in Fargo was also first-rate.
Wait, wait Mona Lisa Smile, she was in that one too!
She played the character who finds out that all the traditional marriage stuff is actually horrible and stifling, and had some really great character development. She went from Uber-Bitch at the beginning to Independent Woman in the end.
(Plus she shacks up with Maggie Gyllenhaal, which is when they realize that they’re totally in love with each other and finally get together …….. wait, I think that only happened in my imagination. Whoops)
Yes! I came here to mention Mona Lisa Smile! She’s fantastic in that (the whole cast is fantastic, really), and all the fifties fashion is to die for.
I was surprised that she is younger in age than I had thought, and also that she had a baby yesterday apparently–
The Cat’s Meow is one of my favorite movies! I love the black and white color palate, and Joanna Lumley’s character’s hats!
I mean, she wore some groovy 60s threads in Dick as well…. Yes, that was the name of the movie.